Congress weighs big choices on virus aid
WASHINGTON — Congress is at a crossroads in the coronavirus crisis, wrestling over whether to “go big,” as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants for the next relief bill, or hit “pause,” as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell insists.
It’s a defining moment for the political parties heading toward the election and one that will affect the livelihoods of countless Americans suddenly dependent on the federal government. Billions of dollars in state aid, jobless benefits and health resources are at stake. As questions mount over Washington’s proper role, it’s testing President Donald Trump and Congress.
“These are the eternal debates in American history,” said Richard Sylla, a professor emeritus of economic and financial history at New York University.
“It’s a bit like what Alexander Hamilton was facing in 1790,” he said, describing the plan to have the new federal government assume the Revolutionary War debts of the states, despite protests of a bailout. It was, he said, as Hamilton framed it, “the price of liberty.”
As negotiations develop on Capitol Hill, the coronavirus response offers Congress an opportunity to shape the country’s post-pandemic future but also carries the risk of repeating mistakes of past crises, including the 200809 recession, that history does not easily forget.
Trump and McConnell huddled late last week on next steps after rejecting Pelosi’s plan. The Democratic speaker set the table with passage of the sweeping $3 trillion coronavirus relief bill, which includes $1 trillion to shore up states and cities to avert municipal layoffs, $1,200 stipends to Americans and other aid.
“We could have done bigger,” Pelosi told The Associated Press in a recent interview.
With more than 38 million unemployment claims, the Republican response centers on kick-starting the economy to reduce the need for more federal intervention.
Republican priorities are to wean Americans off unemployment benefits to nudge people back to work and provide liability protections for businesses that reopen.
Republicans want to eliminate the $600 weekly unemployment benefit boost, arguing it “handcuffs” some employees with higher pay than they earn at their jobs. McConnell also wants to protect doctors, schools and others from COVID-19-related lawsuits — a “red line,” he says, for any deal.
“There’s a high likelihood we will do another rescue package,” McConnell said on Fox News. “We need to work smart here.”
The political and economic debate stretches beyond the halls of Congress as wary Americans await Washington’s next move.
Washington has been here before. Staring down the 2008-09 financial crisis forced the House and Senate into a historic debate over the size and scope of government that still resonates today.
Then, like now, countless Americans fell swiftly into the ranks of the newly unemployed, while the very foundations of the American dream — home ownership then, health now — hung in the balance. Then, banks needed a federal lifeline; today, businesses look to Washington for help.